We want to start the season on a high note - Thinasonke Mbuli

The Super League is back this weekend with the UWC taking on Coal City Wizards at the Puma Stadium in Witbank at 15:00 this afternoon.

Mbuli, whose side finished second behind champions Mamelodi Sundowns last season, is looking to kickstart their campaign on a winning note.

“We want to start the league on a high note by winning the first game, it will give us confidence going forward, but they’re a tricky side,” said Mbuli of their opponents.

“In fact, all the teams this season are going to be a bit tricky because of all the players that are moving to different teams.

“But I can say we had a very good pre-season so the girls are ready and they look sharp for the new season.”

The Cape side finished 14 points behind Sundowns Ladies, for which Mbuli blames her team’s inconsistency over the course of the season.

“We lacked consistency. We lost games that we could have easily won [and] we drew games that we could have easily won. So, what was lacking was that hunger of grinding results, week in and week out,” she pinpointed.

“That's why we ended up where we ended up. We had a very good first round, but then that long WAFCON (Women’s African Cup of Nations) break killed our momentum.”

Banyana Banyana midfielder Kholoso Biyana has returned to UWC after her short stint in Spain with Sporting de Gijón, and Mbuli – who is also the national team assistant – believes the player has grown since plying her trade abroad.

"Kholoso is coming back as a different player now. She's no longer the player that we recruited from UKZN – she's coming back with experience from Spain as well as WAFCON.

“She plays in a position where we had to convert some players to have balance in that position and, with what we've seen in training, she's going to give us exactly what we need from her,” she concluded.